Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

Shaun,
When you don't let the wire twist naturally, the strands inside tend to twist to the point of breaking and force their way to the surface of the insulation. You might get lucky and then again, you might not.

Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

We made our electrical board out of 2 pieces of Lexan sandwiched together. We zip-tied most everything else but bolted the cRIO down. It was hard to get the zipties through the modules. :) 11 pounds when all was said and done. Note to self, replace the nuts with locking nuts tomorrow. After that, on to not making the cabling a rat's nest.

Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

cgmv123 - Why two pieces of Lexan?

You want to make sure your cRio is mounted securely no matter what... it's expensive to replace, and a huge brick with a lot of momentum. Remember when mounting it, however, than the bolts you use to mount it to the lexan (or wood, or whatever your electrical board material is made out of) are likely to be electrically conductive as well - if those bolts them hit your frame or a bottom pan in your robot, the cRio will be grounded to the chassis (which means you'll fail inspection until you correct it). So make sure you get some good backing there or cut holes to ensure those bolts aren't touching anything metal other than the cRio!

Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

We only had quarter-inch thick Lexan handy, so we sandwiched 2 together for extra support.

And the Lexan automatically isolates the cRIO, so we are set there as well. The Axis Camera is a different story.

Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

What is the stroy with the axis camera i know how to wire it but mounting it? ?

Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

The camera, like the Crio has a metal chassis that is tied to the negative lead of the battery. The camera, when used, must be insulated from the robot frame.

Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

So you reccomend putting it on a piece of lexan

Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

Shaun,
I understand how you want to twist those wires, and I admire your understanding that the wires could get damaged. This is good. Also, I agree with everyone who says that it is perfectly legal to twist the wires.

A better way to twist wires together is to kind-of braid them. When you just spin them with a drill, each wire twists inside itself too, and that's not as good for the wire. I know it is a little harder to twist them by hand, but it is better for the wire.

To twist wires the right way, put one end in a drill and start it spinning. Have someone else hold the single wires loose, in a "V" shape as they twist together. This YouTube video shows a guy using a machine to do this, but you can do it by hand too.

If the wires get twisted inside, which happens when you use a drill and vise, they can break inside (even in the middle of the wire) where you can't see and then you have real problems.

Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

You can put it on anything else that won't conduct electricity. The metal case of the camera, and of the cRio, both MUST be insulated from the metal chassis of your robot. Inspectors WILL check for this and make you fix it before your robot can compete.

Lexan doesn't conduct electricity, but also wood, rubber and other things might be good choices too.

Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

How about mounting the cRIO (to metal frame) with a rubber gasket and nylon hardware? Crazy?

Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

Alternatively, you could use some fishing swivels and fishing line to hold the wire for you, just be sure to wear your ::safety:: in case the line decides to break.

Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

This would work but the nylon hardware might not hold in this year's wild game.

Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

Agreed - we mounted to lexan and lexan to the frame.

Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

Since you are worrying about the visual appearance of the robot, I would not recommend spinning the wires. Instead, go to your local electronics store and buy wire with an outer casing. It makes everything look nice and neat, and in some stores, you have a choice of colors, so you can chose the wire to match the color of your robot. You will also have a choice of how many wires you want in the bundle, so that will eliminating having to run several strands side by side. We use these wires on our robot and they make it look great, and neat.

Re: Spining wires? cRIO mounting?
 

Mind [R44] and [R45]. Power wires for the cRIO must be 20 AWG or larger (per [R44], and the positive must be red, white, brown, or black with a stripe for the +24volt side and blue or black for the negative side.

There are no restrictions on color for wire management devices such as spiral wrap and cable carriers, however I don't know if a casing such as the one shown is in the same category. That might be one for Q&A.